What Do People Expect from Public Services? Requests in Public Service Encounters

Abstract

What do customers expect from public services? This question has been addressed in numerous ways, and there are plenty of reasons why this question is worthwhile asking. One of them has to do with service quality: If counsellors in public service en counters know about customer expectations, they may be able to adjust their actions accordingly and thereby increase public service quality. One way to find out about customer expectation is to look closer at the actual encounter between the public and public services. The current study will investigate public service encounters at the Danish Public Employment Service. Here, one specific activity will be investigated in more detail, namely requests. Requests are a common and crucial activity in public service encounters. Research on requests has shown that participants in interaction orient to aspects of entitlement and contingencies in regard to the recipient’s ability to comply with the request. The current study will investigate in how far these findings correspond with the customer’s orientation to public service encounters at the Public Employment Service. The study will conclude by discussing implications for the workplace.